PUBLICATION ETHICS AND PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

Publication ethics are required for high-quality publication in ECTI-CIT Transactions. It is therefore important to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the peer reviewer, and the journal editors. Our ethical statements are grounded in the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Duties of Authors

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted. Authors should acknowledge ideas and previously published results by citing these works in the paper and listing them in the references. The Journal reserves the right to use plagiarism detecting software to screen submitted papers at all times.

Accuracy: Authors of papers that report on original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. Conclusions should be based on the evidence presented in the paper and not on personal opinions.

Disclosure of financial support and conflicts of interest: All financial support for the research and the paper writing process should be disclosed in the acknowledgments and any conflicts of interest should be stated. Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should be disclosed include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honorarium, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed when the article is submitted.

Authorship and Contributorship: Authorship must be limited to individuals who made significant contributions to the study's conception, design, execution, or interpretation. All co-authors must approve the final manuscript version and consent to its submission.

Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Submission: Submitting essentially the same research to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is strictly prohibited.

Errors in Published Works: If an author discovers a significant error in their published work, they must promptly notify the editor or publisher to cooperate in retracting or correcting the paper.

 

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and helps authors improve the scientific quality of their submitted papers.

Promptness and Objectivity: Any referee who feels unqualified to evaluate a manuscript or foresees an inability to meet the review deadline must notify the editor and excuse themselves from the process. Reviews must be conducted objectively with clear, supporting arguments.

Confidentiality: All manuscripts received for review must be treated as strictly confidential documents and must not be disclosed to or discussed with others without explicit authorization from the editor.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Privileged information or ideas obtained during peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers must recuse themselves from evaluating manuscripts where competitive, collaborative, or other conflicts of interest exist.

 

Duties of Editors

Publication Decisions and Fair Play: The editor of ECTI-CIT Transactions is responsible for deciding which submitted manuscripts should be published based solely on their scientific merit, originality, and relevance, without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.

Confidentiality and Conflicts of Interest: Editors and editorial staff must maintain strict confidentiality regarding all submitted manuscripts and recuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they have competing, collaborative, or other relationships that create a conflict of interest.

Ethical Oversight and Misconduct Allegations: Editors oversee adherence to research ethics standards (including institutional review board and ethics approvals for human or animal studies). In cases of alleged research misconduct—such as plagiarism, data fabrication, or citation manipulation—editors investigate thoroughly following COPE guidelines and flowcharts, taking appropriate actions including manuscript rejection, formal retraction, or institutional notification.

Complaints, Appeals, and Post-Publication Discussions: Editors provide transparent mechanisms for handling complaints regarding editorial processes, formal appeals against rejection decisions, and post-publication academic discussions or criticisms. Appeals and ethical complaints are reviewed impartially in accordance with COPE procedures.

Data Sharing, Intellectual Property, and Retractions: Editors foster scientific transparency by encouraging data availability statements, enforcing copyright and Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0) licensing terms, permitting self-archiving, and issuing formal corrections (errata/corrigenda) or retractions whenever significant errors or inaccuracies are identified in published articles.

 

Research Ethics: Human and Animal Rights

           For research involving biological subjects, authors must ensure the study was conducted within a recognized ethical framework.

Human Subjects: Research involving human participants, human material, or human data must be performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. A statement must be included in the manuscript identifying the Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board (IRB) that approved the study, including the approval number. Authors must confirm that informed consent was obtained from all participants.

Animal Subjects: Research involving animals must comply with institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals. Manuscripts must include a statement identifying the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or equivalent ethics body that approved the work, along with the approval number.

 

Generative AI Policy

ECTI Transactions on Computer and Information Technology values innovation while prioritizing human intellectual integrity, allowing generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude strictly for language enhancement, such as correcting grammar, refining sentence structure, and improving readability. Authors must thoroughly review, edit, and approve all AI-refined text, as using AI to write major manuscript sections (such as the Introduction, Discussion, or Literature Review) or to interpret research results is strictly prohibited. Transparency is mandatory, requiring authors to include an explicit disclosure statement in the manuscript confirming AI was used solely for language editing. Ultimately, non-disclosure or inappropriate use of AI tools constitutes a violation of publication ethics, which may result in manuscript rejection or post-publication retraction.

 

Publication Decisions

The journal will not accept articles which have been published (except in the form of an abstract) or are being considered for publication by another journal. Papers being considered here should not be submitted to other journals. 

The editor of ECTI-CIT Transactions is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

 

Allegation of Research Misconduct

ECTI Transactions on Computer and Information Technology maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward research misconduct, including plagiarism, data fabrication, and authorship malpractice. We follow COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines to handle allegations. If misconduct is confirmed, the journal reserves the right to reject the manuscript, issue a formal retraction for published work, and notify the authors' institutions.